Thing 7: Productivity & Collaboration Tools

The first tool I decided to check out was Remember the Milk.  Though I do think it was neat tool, I think I am more of a traditional, write on a scrap paper or in my planner type of list maker.  To me, having to login and access my lists is more work than I am looking for, even if I can just access it on my phone.

The next tool I explored was Google Calender.  I chose this one because I see it on sites all over and I've always been curious about it.  I think it will be useful in remembering events and such, but similar to my tendencies with list making, I think I like my planner more than an online source.  I have a feeling that I would fill my Google Calender with things, and then forget I did it, thereby accidently missing them.  I am going to give it some time, however, and see if I enjoy using it.

There are other tools I want to explore, such as the ones to help remember passwords, and I plan to explore them in future when I have a spare moment.

Thing 6: Online Meetings and Webinars

The webinar I chose to watch was called Targeting the ages: programming that hits the mark, and it was an extremely useful resource.  I came away from it with so many ideas and tools to actually implement those tools.  The archived video was about an hour and half long, and having the ability to press play and then pause whenever I needed to made it even better.  It was very easy to access, since all I had to was click the button and there it was.  I apparently already had the software needed, so that made things smoother. 

I actually took a class once that was set up similar to this, except we met in person and live chatted with another class room within my university's system so we were one big class.  The instructor would rotate each week which location she was at.  It was a strange set up, but I enjoyed it because it gave us that many more people to contribute to the conversation and helped make things very interesting.  It was for a communications class, so it also helped display different (more modern) ways of communicating.  I really enjoyed the webinar, because it gives the viewer a chance to listen while also looking at the powerpoint presentations they show and the websites they reference.  In a way, I liked it more than an in-person meeting, because sometimes when meeting in person, you don't get a chance to cover all the topics you wanted and things get left out because of the conversations started.  A lot of valuable information can be lost, but when they are on a tight production schedule, they are forced to cover all topics.  I will definitely be viewing more webinars, and I am so happy I took the time to explore them.

Thing 5: Reflection

Since starting these online tutorials, I have since realized how easy blogs are and how great a resource they can be.  I just started one for the library http://schuylervillepubliclibrary.wordpress.com/ but I'm still getting it up and running, so isn't very exciting just yet.  I am using it as a place to post about events and book reviews and general things about our library.  My hope for it is that patrons visit the blog and leave comments, questions, suggestions etc. 

I have also furthered my understanding of social media sites and their usefulness in the library.  I now have the know-how and motivation to get the library using all of these tools.

Thing 4: Online Communities

I love online communities.  They are just fun.  Personally, I am a member of Facebook, Goodreads (amanda85), and Ravelry (amanda45).  I have been using Goodreads for a few years and I love it.  It not only lets me keep track of what I've read, but it gives me ideas on what I may like based on my ratings.  I especially like the "to-read" list so that I can keep track of all those books I see, want to read and then can't ever remember where that scrap piece of paper with the title went.  It just makes it easy having all my book titles in one spot.  I think this could be a great tool for the library if we were to create a library group and share reviews and what the book club is reading. 

I am obsessed with Ravelry, a site that I only recently became aware of when a member of our knit/crochet club mentioned it.  I am planning on making a group and/or forum for our knitting club so people can post pictures of what they're working on and questions they may have in between meetings.  It would also give those who can't make it to our meetings a chance to still be a part of the group. 

The library got a Twitter account a month or so ago, despite my hesitation.  I have never had any use for one on a personal level, since it seemed like just another page to log-in to and update a status and it seemed like you could just do that on Facebook or AIM.  But with regards to the library, I think its a very useful tool.  However, after having it for a bit, we still only have 8 followers, which seemingly makes it usless as far as getting information out there.  I think if we had more people following our tweets, it would be an awesome tool.  The questions is:  How do we get the word out there? 

We also have a Facebook with is a wonderful tool for getting information out to many people at once and it gives the patrons a chance to leave us comments too.  Facebook is a no-brainer for us.

Thing 3: Photo Sharing

I surprisingly had never used Flikr before now.  I loved how easy it was to post a picture to the blog and that made the site very user friendly for people like me who are still getting the hang of photo sharing and blogging etc.  However I thought the storage capabilites of the site were less than desirable and it took an exceedingly long time to upload many pictures at once.  I have used other sites such as Kodak Gallery and piccassa and I think I would be more likely to use those in the future.
I think the idea of using a photo sharing site for the library is a really great one because it gives the public a sense of what we do at the library.  If they see pictures of events and such they may see all the things they can join in on and it could add to the number of people attending events.

American Girl Day

P3260006, a photo by SVL2011 on Flickr.

We had an American Girl meet and greet which was a huge success!  Over 70 people attended, American Girl Dolls in tow and we had fun decorating cupcakes, eating pizza & lemonade, and making friendship bracelets for the girls and their dolls. 

Thing 2: RSS

I found this weeks topic to be a little confusing at first, but I'm not sure why that is.  I had an igoogle account from years ago that I had completely forgotten about, which begs the question: how useful is this tool to me?  I decided to give it another shot, but this time with netvibes, just to change it up a little. 

I think the concept of RSS, personal home pages and feed readers is a wonderful and time saving idea.  The ability to be able to sign into one page and see everything from Twitter updates, to Facebook status' is wonderful and oh how it will save time and energy of not having to go from page to page!  But, if its so wonderful, than why did I find myself never using this tool?  I'll let you know when I figure this out.

I like that netvibes has the weather and everything right in one place, and I am going to try and take advantage of this by using my page more.  There are a few blogs I enjoy, so as I add them, I get excited to check into netvibes and see if there's any new information for me.  I think that is what I like most.  The ability to make a page of things I love and want to know about, specifically contoured to me, so I don't have to go from site to site for updates.  Something I dislike, however, is how my facebook and twitter account and things like that are always logged in.  I somehow makes me feel uneasy about it.  Don't know why (again).

With regard to usefulness with libraries, I don't know that it would be all that helpful.  I suppose in terms of book reviews, new releases, and happenings at other libraries, but I'm not sure I would really use this tool for that.

To sum up, I don't think this tool is for me.  As with anything else, I love to test it out, but I don't think it will become a part of my daily internet routine.